WATCH: Tea Bags: Red Or Green? Scenes From A New Mexico Tea Party (Video)

I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico about a week ago from Los Angeles and one of the things that struck me immediately is how nice everyone was. Just out doing errands, strangers will strike up a conversation about anything and they take the time to listen to your stories, too.

So when I went to the Albuquerque Tea Party late on a very windy afternoon on April 15th, almost everyone I spoke to was very nice. I had some nice conversations both on and off camera with the individuals attending, who obviously came from a variety of ideological and political backgrounds.

But as a group -- something wicked this way comes.

There's a danger in mobs that allows people to act much worse than they ever would on their own. And while we've been laughing at the antics of Limbaugh and Beck and Malkin and Fox News, those pundits and a thousand small town bloggers and talk radio host have been fanning the embers beneath their loose coalition of discontents. They have tugged and pulled at their fringes and stoked their unrest and played and preyed on their patriotism.

Comments

[jan4insight]

Welcome to Albuquerque, Mr. Stranahan. I live here, too, and this is the first I've heard of the local tea "party." Since I follow the news and I travel frequently in the area described, it must have been a very small tempest in a tiny little teapot.

[archtoplee]

Mr. Stanahan:
Have you ever attended any of the "left's" anti-big government protests and asked them to explain their message on their placards?

The Bush administration's proclivity for all things global stirred up some hot street "debate" in Seattle, Washington some time back. The people expressed their dissatisfaction with Bush and World Trade Organization policies by damaging private property. They wore masks and carried signs. If you had been there,(maybe you were), would you have asked the protesters what brought them to the conclusion that the WTO is a bad organization?

I too oppose the WTO but not for the same reasons that the Ruckus Society does for example who were at the anti-WTO Rally in Seattle.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS308&q=seattle+WTO+protest&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=SwjqSauLIZuctgPkvcTmAQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

[Thinkprogressive]

I'm from seattle, and just for the record those riots were while Clinton was still in office and had nothing to do with Bush

[reddythafox]

Welcome to the Land of Enchantment. To be fair to New Mexico group-thin­k... less than a thousand people (better than for Mccain) after relentless media attention?

When candidate Obama came, on a moment's notice 35 thousand showed up. As a representation of the power of the activist vote goes heavily for. Despite my favor for the President's big 3 policies, the support of NM hinges on his promise of Immigration Reform this year rather than "liberal" and "conservative" banter.

The shut-down reaction when you mentioned pre-existing conditions to is typical of what I experienced going door to door. This group won't talk about solutions because they are so afraid of hearing about the plight of others. I yearned for the good Ron Paul supporter who actually had some educated views on opposition rather than the name calling and door slamming I ran into at Palin houses. The restaurant owner you interviewed seemed great, I wonder if you put him to the test on issues like you did the others?

Conspiracy addicts. It's just as harmful that a large chunk are tuned in to MSNBC, no more enabling than FOX when time comes to actual discussions. New Mexico has the highest per capita of Phd's. If your video IS an accurate representation of our discourse, then it is a miracle to have a thoughtful and articulate President. I just wish more people would hear his full remarks before they tune in to be told what they thought.

[Lee Stranahan - Huffpost Blogger]

I didn't cut out any audio in people's comment. I didn't ask the restaurant owner any questions because nothing occured to me. Off camera, he said the same thing on camera.

It's about as accurate as I could make it of the people who I spoke to. Most people were very nice - for instance, the Global Warming guy was very jovial and friendly.

[archtoplee]

closer to 10,000 people.

You did attend? Drive between Carlisle and Pennsylvania on Montgomery where the line of people stretched.­Shoulder to shoulder,( in some sections 3 and four people deep), and figure the amount of people present by some simple calculations.

Your car's odometer or plug in an address between Carlisle and Pennsylvania. Those were the streets that bordered the demonstration line. How many feet does a person take up standing? Do the math. Photographic evidence will quickly disprove your low number. Local news said thousands. One local TV station estimated the crowd at 10,000 people.

The demostrators were standing , sitting, and driving the route. I saw hundreds of demonstrators with signs in their automobiles pass by. Many of these had 4 and more people per car. Others didn't have any signs to display but they would roll down their car window to talk to us and cheer us on and to take the literature I was handing out.

I paid for the literature I handed out with my credit card. If you were to order literature to hand out at your rally I suppose that technically a corporation helped pay for it ifyou used a credit car.

Pro-amnesty ralleys get free air time courtesy of Big Media. Tax exempt foundations help fund lefists groups directly. Investigative reporters have referred to these tax granted lefties as "rent-a mobs." These groups are usually seen at pro-UN, phoney anti-WTO, and anti-nuclear power demonstrations.

[jedi penguin]

I don't see anyone acting badly, and certainly not like a mob. This looks to me like a lot of opinions that I don't agree with (and one that I do) being expressed peacefully and civilly... which is exactly what America should be about. So kudos to the Albuquerque protesters, and shame to the OP for denigrating the value of peaceful protest just because he happens to disagree with it.

[suzi39]

"Unlike Bush, Obama won by a landslide. Unlike Bush, Obama truly does have a mandate for real change and I don't care if a small percent of weak, old, white Republicans are scared. They have proven they extremely selfish, low information people."

Is this an indication the the "youth squads" are rising to defeat the bad "old" people? Oh yes, and if we disagree we must also be white? So many Tea Party " discontents" should be dealt with to make sure our voices not be heard. Does that sound familiar?

[kathy001]

We're listening. We have been listening all along. But it's getting hard - we keep waiting to here something intelligent, something informative, something that is actually true and we're not hearing it. So, yes, we're listening but don't expect a favorable response until you get your act together and stop buying into ridiculous and/or dangerous lies.

[Farkel4444]

Progressive Goats can't understand that someone would actually not agree with their tripe. Those "wicked" people had signs.....­..WITH WORDS! I just know some of them had assault weapons tucked in their socks....

[KMAz]

They are not wicked people, they are just misled and dilusional. We would be glad to help guide them to the light.

[IamaGApeach]

They aren't wicked....­.just a little Albequirky.

[Petey131]

"Don't be fooled by what people say" says a "teabagger­." Really? Why do the "teabaggers" sound so much like Hannity? Limbaugh? Fake News?

[jsanti7]

oh bit tame and a bit uninformed but I imagine they would say the same about me lol Just wish the guy hung up on rand would have recommended Thomas Paine for school kids first but no real rabid frothing hate mongers on this vid as i have seen on others I miss the Anti Rumsfeld rallies in TaosNM though, those got a bit rabid and the entertainment value matched the odorous factor of most attending hi on the eye watering scale lol

[Timma]

Wow! That video is scary. People who can't spell, who can't articulate what or why they're protesting, people who advocate selfishness - Go for it Republicans!!

[cruisin2009]

Lee, when you told that last man that you had diabetes and could not get health care the look on his face was like "so what"!! He could care less about the suffering of other people in this country. I wonder what he would feel like if his child came down with some sickness and could not be insured.

[Farkel4444]

What? Huff Huff Post does not provide healthcare? What a Scandal...­..

[NuMexMama]

I will never spend 1 penny of my hard-earned money at the 'Independence Grill'. I've lived in Albuquerque for 16 yersr. I love it here. Our entire Congressional delegation is made of newly elected Democrats. Our state voted for President Obama. I'm proud of that. "Mr. Independence Grill"can depend upon the Right Wing Whiners to support his business. I just woudn't feel welcome there.

[OpalSky42]

Listening to that man say that global warming is a plot to keep us from traveling (huh?) and to take way our freedoms (WTF?) was sad. So much deliberate ignorance.

[snapshot1940]

I attended the rally in Phoenix and the protesters in Albuquerque that you interviewed were nowhere as rabid as they were here.

Welcome to Albuquerque. I moved from there too long ago and I miss it.

[LI Catfish]

I've never heard you share your thoughts on mob mentality before. Does this phenominon only occur with a select group of likemended consevatives or can we lump the anti war people, feminists, open borders, illigal immergrants, no nukes people or maybe the global warming people into this catagory of wicked wind mob mentality? I have a funny feeling you nevar made this observation in the past eight years. Or you did and chose not to report it. Are we a tab biased? Is dessent no longer patriotic?

[Lee Stranahan - Huffpost Blogger]

I don't know how much of my stuff you've read.

The rhetoric in these rallies is very much in line with the ideology of the Oklahoma City Bomber. I didn't witness anything like that at the rallies opposed to the Iraq invasion that I attended.

[juna]

I'm sorry, but as soon as I see such a multitude of careless or ignorant spelling errors, I lose respect for the writer ("phenominon" "likemended" "consevatives" "dessent", etc. etc.). And contemplating the meaning of this comment, I see that my initial impression was correct.

[LauraVW]

I was at the capitol in Hartford, CT and ABC was there as well as FOX. (14 newspapers as well)

It was a minimum of 3,500 (according to the police) and a max of 5,000 (the organizers). (Not bad since there were simultaneous protests in Greenwich, New Haven and Norwich in our tiny state.) If anyone wants to see video of what happened, and see how many Democrats were also there protesting the crazy deficit spending you can go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w3EYBdR0zU

The best speaker talks about what it means to be an honorable American. (She came here 30 years ago from the Dominican Republic)

[Weirdwriter]

Did you protest the crazy deficit spending of the Bush years? The tax breaks for the wealthiest folks and corporations while most working people's wages were stagnant for years? The soaring costs of even a state college education and the bone-cutting profiteering of the health insurance companies?

Or is it only now, with a Democratic administration trying to clean up the mess, that you have found your outrage?